Advena
by Actaeus
Summary: FemShep/Liara T'soni pairing, a few OCs within. Begins approximately six months before the events of Mass Effect 2 in around April 2185. Moderately AU; in that the events of ME1 occur as in canon, but the events of ME2 and ME3 are different than in canon; along with additional non-canon background events. Basically, what if Wilson had succeeded in halting the Lazarus Project?
1. Prologue

FemShep/Liara T'soni pairing, a few OCs within. The story begins approximately six months before the events of Mass Effect 2 in around April 2185. Moderately AU; in that the events of ME1 occur as in canon, but the events of ME2 and ME3 are different than in canon; along with additional non-canon background events in all three games.

 **ADVENA**

 ** _FORSHER'S LATIN DICTIONARY, 2182 online edition, retrieved from exonet 4:31:11 ago_**

advena (noun)  
/' .na/

Definitions: Outsider, Foreigner, Stranger, Alien.

 **PROLOGUE**

 ** _Cronos Station, April 2185 (Six Months Before the Events of Mass Effect 2 as we know it)_**

"Your report, Miss Lawson."

Standing straight, Miranda closed her eyes for a moment to collect her thoughts. "We were six months from a viable subject in LAZARUS when the incident occurred. Despite Mr. Wilson's best efforts, we were able to contain the damage to Shepard. Her reconstructed CNS is still viable, but her body as a whole suffered...significant damage."

The Illusive Man sighed and took a long drag from his cigar, thinking for several moments. "How long will this delay us? I cannot emphasize how important Shepard is to our long-term plans."

"Ten months at the most..."

"No," replied Harper, cutting her off. "Ten months is too long. We just lost another colony in the Terminus systems a few hours ago. Both the colony population and elapsed time since the last attack were within 15% of our projections. If these attacks continue to track with our estimates, the Terminus systems will have lost 60% of their human population within eight months."

Miranda walked over to Harper and handed over a datapad. "We're out of good choices in LAZARUS. Wilson also scrambled the majority of our work, _including_ the secure off-site backups. However, reconstruction of the work should proceed at a rapid pace, since we know what we're doing, _plus_ we won't have Mr. Wilson sabotaging the project, leading us into blind alleys. My surviving project leads have estimated that Mr. Wilson cost us a conservative five months in dead ends."

Harper finished off his drink and handed the now-empty tumbler to the assistant standing behind his chair. "As much as much as I'd have liked to bring back Shepard exactly as she was; we're now faced with considerable time constraints, in addition to the accelerating pace of colony disappearances. Many of the operatives we've detailed for possible inclusion into Shepard's team are transient. If you would, Eva?"

The mobile platform for the Enhanced Versatile AI handed a fresh tumbler full of liquor to Harper before walking to the center of the room.

"Certainly, Mr. Harper. Cerberus intelligence has detected signs that the major gangs of Omega are starting preliminary talks over dealing with the vigilante known as the ARCH ANGEL together. We estimate a 80% chance of this occurring within the next five months. If this occurs, the death of ARCH ANGEL is 90% certain to follow within the next sixty to ninety days."

"Ms. Goto, Mr. Krios, and Mr. Massani are currently on contracts where their locations can be predicted with a high degree of accuracy and the costs of buying out their contracts are relatively low at this time. Delays past the seven month mark are likely to mean significant increases in projected outlays in order to nullify whatever contracts they may have picked up in the intervening interval."

"Thank you, Eva. What do we have that could replace LAZARUS and allow us to meet our scheduling constraints?"

Eva cocked her head to the side, as if deep in thought, before continuing. "We have several projects currently underway which meet the primary parameter specified for LAZARUS. They however, fail the secondary and tertiary parameters."

"Project EX MACHINA is largely complete and is actually an outgrowth of the LAZARUS project, intended to aid the reconstruction of Shepard's brain by estimating personality and memory parameters from proposed neuronical growth patterns. Unfortunately, we have suffered some exposure on this project, with an early version of EX MACHINA being stolen by sliders and passed on to illegal VI dealers on the Citadel. Estimated time to complete EX MACHINA and download it to a synthetic body similar to this combat unit, four months."

"Unfeasible," replied Harper. "There's already enough political and legal issues over President Huerta's mental state, that going full AI would embroil us in controversy for years."

"Much less the issue," Miranda added with a shake of her hair. "Of a sentient AI that _thinks_ it's Commander Shepard. The Citadel Council would likely sanction it and order it destroyed at all costs."

"Continue," ordered Harper.

"Project BRAIN BUCKET is currently in the advanced prototyping stage, using the CNS of convicted criminals that have been flashwiped and implanted in JOTUN mechs. It would take five to six months to develop the 'Bucketing' process to a point where confidence in the preservation of Shepard's personality and memories are extremely high. Due to the need for life support and other functions, a larger and bulkier synthetic body than this combat unit would have to be developed."

"It may be feasible," Miranda replied. "But we spent a lot of time in LAZARUS dealing with existentiality issues as part of our psych profiles of Shepard. If you bucket her, she's likely to develop self-injurious behavioral patterns within a few months."

"I agree," concurred Harper. "However, continue your investigations into BUCKET; it might have some utility in the future to enable us to make further use of critically wounded ground personnel."

"Next."

"Regarding Project GEMINI, if the order is given, Shepard's CNS could be implanted into one of the several clones we have already processed to completion to act as spares for Project LAZARUS. As before, five to six months would be required to validate the process via using test subjects to verify that the 'squeezing' does not induce instabilities and that the implanted CNS' aren't rejected by the clone bodies."

"This is probably our best chance," stated Miranda. "Despite the issues with it being an obvious clone and subjecting us to additional scrutiny. It could be sold with slight difficulty. However, it requires the consent of the Council, in order to have Shepard's SPECTRE biosignature on file updated to match the new body."

"I'm considering it," replied Harper, shaking his cigar to clear it of ash. "Next."

"Project ADVENA began immediately after the founding of Cerberus, to provide a way to infiltrate alien societies. Advena Level I- _Alpha_ , which is currently operational, utilizes heavy surgical alterations to enable operatives to pass as Asari in light to moderate conditions of cover. Advena Level I- _Victor_ , also operational, utilizes surgical reduction procedures to enable operatives to fit into Volus environmental suits."

At this, a slight smirk appeared on Harper's face. Some of Cerberus' most spectacular operations had utilized ADVENA operatives. "I'm well aware of Level One, Eva. However, I believe Operative Lawson has yet to be briefed on Level Two proposals. Please continue."

"Level II proposals for the _Alpha, Tango_ , and _Sierra_ sub-projects have been put forth; but various technical and logistical difficulties have prevented steady development on all but the _Alpha_ sub-project. Current development of _Alpha_ is predicated heavily upon information recovered in the _Codexio Lamashtu_ recovered from Thessia several years ago by Ms. Goto."

"Preliminary research on Ardat-Yakshi meldings support the statements made in the _Codexio Lamashtu_. Shepard could be operational in forty days once approval is given. However, the ADVENA principals strongly discourage any action without consultation with Asari religious elements, particularly since the subject would be considered a Lamashtu-Yakshi by the Justicars."

"Other issues relate to being able to pass in Asari society beyond a base level of functionality. Due to their extreme lifespans, there are many subtle social cues which normal operatives would not be able to pick up on, and this led to the failure of the last ADVENA Level IA operative. We were unable to make headway on this issue until Shepard became available as an option."

Brushing her 'hair' to one side, Eva continued. "Cerberus sources indicate that before her death on Alchera, Commander Shepard substantiated a bond with Liara T'Soni. Medical journals are full of studies on the effects of Asari bonding, namely the metastasis of knowledge from one part of the bond to the other. In some extreme cases, bonded individuals may believe that they are the other individual."

Miranda strode forward and planted her hands on Harper's desk, disrupting the haptic displays floating in mid-air. "You can't seriously be considering this. Shepard's become the face of humanity across the galaxy since the Saren incident. If we go down this path, we'd be throwing all that away. Nine months, Mr. Harper - I can bring her back."

Harper sighed. "Miranda, LAZARUS was our most secure project, yet the Shadow Broker penetrated our security and suborned the lead principal easily. At this point, unorthodox methods that are not typical of Cerberus' stated goals have the best chance of success."

"We already have issues within Cerberus regarding aliens," replied Miranda. "Particularly since personnel recruitment for ARGO began. Involving the Asari as a whole may be the final straw for some."

"Miss Lawson," Harper said in a low tone. "Those are not your concerns. Your concerns should be over adapting your work on LAZARUS to ADVENA. Internal disagreements within Cerberus do not concern you."

Miranda shook her head. "It's a tremendous gamble that you're taking, particularly with all those Asari neural engrams we found in Shepard's head. If we're going to go this route, I strongly recommend you fit her with a control chip as soon as possible. I don't like gambling, particularly with stakes this high."

"Sometimes you must dare to win, Miranda." Harper paused. "We're already being forced down a road neither of us wants to travel with Shepard. We can't afford any additional diversions from her baseline. No control chip."

Flicking the ashes off his cigar, the Illusive Man evaluated his most trusted Lieutenant. She was headstrong and impetuous, though not without cause. She'd taken over an impossible cause in LAZARUS and had nearly succeeded, proving her leadership _bona fides_. The recent change of plans regarding Shepard however, merited a closer examination of her behavioral profiles.

Out of all the operatives at his command, only Rasa had the clearance necessary to evaluate the projects that Miranda had been overseeing; so Harper made a mental note to check up on Rasa and reassign her after this meeting.

 **Author's Notes:**

Some of the projects listed by EVA correspond with ME Fanfics.

 **PROJECT BRAIN BUCKET:**  
 ** _Commander Shepard: Ymir Mech_** by SteamedBun on . (2010-2012; incomplete)

 **PROJECT ADVENA (Phase I-Alpha)**

 ** _Of Sheep and Battle Chicken_** by LogicalPremise on in reference to a throwaway OC created for that fic by LogicalPremise

 **PROJECT ADVENA (Phase II-Tango)** **  
 _The Body I Live In_** by Calart and Dr Compass at Archive of Our Own.

 **Dictionary:** **  
**Lamashtu-Yakshi (Survivor of the Night Winds, AU/OC)  
Ardat-Yakshi (Demon of the Night Winds, Canon)  
Kepesh-Yakshi: (Blade of the Night Winds, Canon)


	2. Chapter 1

**Notes: I've slightly revised this from the originals posted earlier this year. Added a few more inner thoughts, etc.**

 **ADVENA**

 **CHAPTER ONE**

 ** _High Orbit over Alchera (Two Months after Mass Effect 1)_**

Commander Jane Shepard watched as what remained of the _Normandy_ disappeared in the bright blue flash of an unstable eezo core releasing all its remaining energy in an uncontrollable reaction. _Shit, I hope Liara's pod made it clear._ Her prayers, or what passed for them, were answered as the tracking beacon for the escape pod she'd launched only moments ago came online in her helmet's flickering heads up display.

The hardest thing she'd had to do in her life hadn't been N6 ICT training on Europa, or facing down an entire unit of Asari commandos on Noveria, but having to look into Liara's face through the porthole set into the hatch for the escape pod while she pulled the manual launch override lever that bypassed the electronic launch sequencer for the pod and flung the pod free of the _Normandy_.

Moments after the pod had been jettisoned, an eye-searing beam had cut through the corridor that Shepard had been in, and she found herself thrown against the bulkhead hard enough to crack her faceplate and cause the beginnings of what she recognized as a cascading computer failure in the suit's systems.

Now, as she hurled through space, she took stock of her position. The _Normandy_ was gone, that much was apparent, but most of the crew had gotten off from the pod beacons she could see when her suit's systems decided to work for a moment, along with the main distress beacon.

All she had to do now was survive until the _Stalingrad_ got here. It'd be uncomfortable, but she'd done ninety hours in a suit as part of N6 training and when the suit diagnostics were working, they showed that the regenerative rebreather was still running, so no danger of running out of air.

Suddenly, a sharp buzzing sound filled her ears. _HELMET INTEGRITY COMPROMISED_ flashed across the bottom of her visor, followed by a flickering pressure gauge showing pressure dropping from 101.3 kPa in a steady drain.

 _Goddamnit. Self repair better hold the line here._

Moments later, her suit's display mocked her. _SELF REPAIR SYSTEMS INOPERATIVE. OMNI-GEL RESERVOIR INOPERATIVE._

 _Fuck_ , she thought. _My only chance is to find that leak and plug it with my suit's fingers._

Despite her frantic search, the leak continued unabated and after twenty seconds, there was only the gasping for a breath that would never come, followed by blackness creeping in from the edges of her vision.

Her last thought before the darkness took her was of Liara T'Soni.

 _I'm sorry Liara, I wish I could be the one you have those little blue babies with, but you'll have them...someday..._

She floated through an indeterminate nothingness, with only faint hints or reminders that she had once been the person called Jane Shepard.

A memory floated up of the last words she'd spoken to her mother, some four centuries before.

 _"Catch her. Just catch her."_

Puzzlement spread through the fuzziness that was her consciousness. _That can't be right_ , she thought. _My mother's name is Hannah. Hannah Shepard, not..._

It took her a moment more to recall the name. _Samara Drestia._

Nothingness then collapsed into reality and she found herself back in a land where forms had shapes and shapes had properties. Before her brain could process what was happening, she was gasping in and out lung-full after lung-full of curiously scented air.

The air smelled like the ocean, instead of the stale, faintly chemical smell of endlessly recirculated air that she'd been breathing only moments ago. That detail was quickly shoved to a corner of her mind as she caught up with breathing again.

As her gasps slowed to faint shudders every other breath, Shepard's thoughts finally started to catch up with where she was. Eyes darting left and right, she found herself inside a small marble temple with two Asari matrons holding her by the shoulders and staring back at her with both curiosity and fear. Somehow, she knew their names.

"Falere," she croaked. _My voice sounds funny._ "Rila."

A moment's pause, as the rest of it came crashing back to her. The _Normandy_. Liara staring back at her from the other side of the porthole, tears running down her eyes, a moment before the jettison system hurled her to safety.

"My ship...did my crew make it?" Shepard paused and took a deep breath. "Did Liara?"

She swore she heard the sound of a glass bottle shattering on the ground, before a voice replied. "Commander Shepard," announced a Matriarch wearing robes emblazoned with the sigil of the Goddess Piares. Next to her stood another Matriarch in a more contemporary dress, with a shocked look on her face and shards of glass at her feet.

 _I guess that was what I heard breaking. But how the hell do I know what Piares is?_

"Most of your crew survived. Lady T'Soni survived, but for a moment, there was some...concern for her mental state."

The way that last line was delivered made Shepard start thinking deeper thoughts. _Was some concern? Just how long have I been out? _Looking down, Shepard saw that she was wearing an elegant deep red wrap, tied off at her waist with a simple cord of rope. The sides of the wrap were open and the wrap ran between her slim blue legs.

Her **_blue_** legs.

 _What the fuck?_

Reaching up with her hands, instead of soft hair, she felt the hardness of an Asari crest.

Before she could process things further, another Asari stepped out of the shadows, lowering the hood of her robes as she did so. Shoulder length dark hair cascaded down, framing a face that had been hastily scrubbed of blue makeup.

"Commander Shepard, my name is Miranda Lawson. I'm head of the program to bring you back."

"Bring me **_back_**?" Shepard's eyes narrowed as she then caught sight of what lay between Falere and Riala; something she hadn't noticed until now. A body.

The body was badly burned, with the legs missing below a point roughly around the knees. In spite of the burns covering every square inch of skin, she could make out a tattoo on the corpse's right arm, one that matched the tattoo she'd gotten after the Skyllian Blitz. The face was a ruin, but there were a few stray strands of unburned red hair sticking out of the scalp. _Is that fucking **me**?_

 _This is it_ , thought Miranda as she watched Shepard staring at her own body. Billions of credits had been spent to get to this point and running alongside the bio-synthetic reconstruction of Shepard had been an intensive psychological study of the woman, headed by Kelly Chambers.

Miranda had used Chambers' studies to get what she wanted in LAZARUS, overruling those who thought she was wasting precious time on trivialities, since according to the studies, the closer they got with the body, Shepard's mind would have an easier time of rationalizing things away. Wilson's betrayal had changed all that.

Now it was plainly obvious to Shepard that she hadn't survived the experience, particularly now that she'd woken up in a room with her body. _Everything_ hinged on this moment.

"Shepard…there's no gentle way to put this. You died with the _Normandy_."

At those words, Shepard's heart skipped a beat. _I died? Is this some fever dream as my brain shuts down from lack of oxygen? It'd explain the whole Asari thing - it's my subconscious acting on Liara's fears of losing me one day._

Pursing her lips together and thinking for a moment, Shepard held up a hand. "People come back from a lot these days. Hell, _Huerta_ came back…but _this_? Last I checked, people don't suddenly wake up feeling pretty _blue_."

"I'm afraid you have us to thank for that, Commander," replied the Matriarch from before. "Miss Lawson's organization was able to restore the spark of life to you, but before they could finish their task, outside forces intervened. You're quite fortunate that you have friends within the Matriarchy."

A sardonic smile appeared on Shepard's face. "Thanks, I guess. Who's Lawson with?"

"Cerberus," said Miranda. "I know you have questions…"

"I don't know what's more fucked up," interrupted Shepard, glaring at Lawson. "Waking up blue, or the fact that it appears that Cerberus and the Matriarchy are friends? I thought you guys were all 'Humanity First' and all that rah-rah stuff."

Before Miranda could reply, the Matriarch did, with a smirk. "It appears unusual, yes, Commander. But some informal…arrangements exist between the Matriarchy and a variety of groups. For example, Cerberus was able to neutralize Matriarch Tilia much more cleanly than we could. Because of that, we were open when Cerberus approached us with a problem they had. Namely, you."

She waved towards several reclining couches over in the corner, which were next to low tables set with a variety of Thessian wines and cheeses. "Before we go any further, I must point out that we've had refreshments set out as I'm sure you're quite famished, Commander."

"Quite." Shepard slowly walked over and sat down, with the others joining her. Over in the corner, she noticed Falere and Rila standing over near her body with confused looks on their faces. Sighing, she motioned to them.

Once the sisters were seated and hesitantly drinking from the proffered wine, Shepard faced the Matriarch. "So…you know my name, but I don't know yours. I'm both at a disadvantage here, and I can't keep calling you 'Matriarch', since she also appears old enough to be one as well." With that, Shepard motioned towards the other Matriarch. "Am I right?"

"Yeah kid, I'm a 'matriarch' for all the good it does me. Name's Aethyta. Your friend over there is Naslilea. She's been kind of a bitch the last four hundred years, though."

"I don't mean to interrupt what appears to be a centuries long feud, but can I start getting some questions answered? Like how I'm a squid now?"

"I like this one, Nassie."

"Commander," interrupted Miranda. "Following your death, before the Alliance could reach the wreck of the _Normandy_ , hired mercenaries did. They intended to sell your body through various intermediaries to the Collectors. Fortunately, a Cerberus cell was able to interrupt the handover and recover you. We've spent the last eighteen months reconstructing you."

"Reconstructing? How bad was it?"

"Your body here is actually in considerably better shape than when we got you. You'd lost your right arm, left leg and significant portions of your skeleton were shattered by ground impact following orbital re-entry."

"Re-entry?" snapped Shepard with a look of disbelief on her face. "Am I some goddamn VI that thinks it's Jane Shepard?"

"No," replied Miranda, disgust on her face. "I'm **_better_** than that, Shepard. You're still you, because your suit helmet retained its integrity all the way down and the emergency stasis systems kicked in moments after you lost consciousness."

Shepard frowned. "So you cut my head off and plopped me onto a clone body?"

" _Shepard_. I told you before. I'm _better_. Also, a cloned whole body replacement would be instantly recognizable on any medical scan and would raise questions as to your provenance. We had to invent whole new medical fields to revive your tissues and start regrowth."

"And the _blue_?"

A dark look spread over Miranda's features. "We were six months away from awakening you when one of our top project leads, Doctor Wilson, turned out to be a traitor. He wiped our computers and triggered the emergency sterilization systems in the laboratory; that's why you're missing your legs and have fourth-degree burns everywhere."

"We could have fixed the damage and brought you back ourselves ten months from now. I suggested that myself, but was overruled by my superior, who felt that time was of the essence and ordered me to use…alternative methods."

"We're all at the mercy of the tides," replied Shepard, who suddenly frowned. "I don't know why that popped into my head, but it just did."

"Looks like you're bluer than you think," remarked Aethyta as she downed another shot of wine.

"At this point," interrupted Naslilea. "Cerberus took upon itself to contact the Matriarchy, requesting help in performing some of the rituals contained within the _Codexio Lamashtu_. Which, by the way, mysteriously disappeared from this monastery five years ago."

Shepard frowned. "Wait a minute, you're saying the Matriarchy has been able to raise the dead for…God, thousands of years?"

"The _Codexio_ this monastery once again holds is actually the fifth copy of the original, which was written by Lysezisa T'naro thirteen thousand years ago."

"By the Goddess," interrupted Rila, a horrified look on her face. "That's why you've had us all on Lesuss for so long. Why you've had us living by a version of the Justicar's code. You're not afraid we'll kill people – you're afraid of this becoming known if we experimented with melds."

A stern look appeared on Naslilea's features. "Yes. Before today, the Matriarchy was safe in the knowledge that this was known to only three people, myself included."

"People would do _anything_ for this," added Shepard. "What if you found out your child could be saved through this?"

"Athame's tits," interrupted Aethyta. "People would kidnap us to try _breeding_ Ardat-Yakshi slaves for their own private collections; as if the slavery problem wasn't bad enough."

"Precisely. Which is why I trust you all will keep this quiet, due to the _implications_." Naslilea sighed. "As much as I'd like to keep it limited to just the people in this temple, it's highly likely that Lady T'Soni, among others, will know of this in the near future."

Shepard swore she saw a flash of worry on Aethyta's face at the mention of Liara. "Matriarch Naslilea, you've done this before, despite the danger of it getting out."

"Yes. The last time was over a thousand years ago, and before that, it was fourteen hundred years before. In all cases in recorded history, the Triarchy of the Temple, Justicars and Council have had final approval on the use of the rites."

"Why'd you approve it?" Shepard said as she jerked a finger towards Miranda. "Cerberus now knows the _Codexio_ actually works, instead of being a fairy tale."

"We approved it because the galaxy needs a symbol, Shepard." Naslilea paused. "Additionally, the Matriarchy has had their eye on you for some time."

"Christ," replied Shepard with a weary look on her face. "Don't tell me it's Watson's Stand."

"Watson's Stand?" said Falere. "They don't tell us much of current events in the Monastery."

"Nine years ago, a collection of Batarian slavers decided to smash Elysium in the Skyllian verge. At the time, I was just a newly-promoted first lieutenant assigned there by Alliance as part of a training program to build up Elysium's defenses. After the orbital defenses were smashed, a demand for immediate surrender was broadcast, plus a deal."

"The deal was, in exchange for surrendering all non-humans on Elysium, no humans would be enslaved and there would be no planetary bombardment. Of all things to say, they inevitably picked the worst possible one to say. Damn Batarians."

Taking a drink, Shepard continued. "General Watson pushed the Batarian deadline as long as he could to get as many non-combatants under cover. My area was the northwestern suburbs of Okeanos and we got, I think four thousand people down to the shelters before the invasion began."

"Two hundred sixty-four were Asari, ninety-five Turian, ten Quarian, and three Elcor," said Nasilea.

Falere looked confused. "Why is that important?"

"Because Watson got asked by a militia officer if they should bring the non-humans to the shelters. Due to typical colonial planning, they'd prioritized housing over emergency shelters." At that last, Shepard snorted. "The population at the time was about half a million, but there was room for only a quarter million."

"Watson from what I heard, looked at the guy like he'd grown a second head," Shepard said as she took a drink. "Then said 'Mix 'em up'. So that's what we did. Prioritized women, children and the elderly over the able bodied. For the Asari who didn't have children with them, we asked about combat experience. If they had less than five years, into the shelter they went. Had to shout down a lot of Turians to get them into the shelters; most didn't want to go."

"When we ran out of space in the deep shelters, we started stuffing people into basements. Once that was done, we inducted the able bodied into the EDF. Ever see a Elcor swear a militia oath? I have." Shepard sighed. "When the deadline expired, the Batarians called up Watson again and repeated their offer. He told them where they could stick it. They opened fire with a first wave of bombardment to soften things up for the assault forces and that was the start of the Blitz."

"The Blitz lasted twenty-eight hours before Elysium was relieved by elements of the Asari Ninth Hunting Group," finished Nasilea. "Lieutenant Shepard was found badly wounded in the courtyard of a building that contained one of the larger bunkers. All around her were the remnants of two full Royal Batarian raiding groups. The Blitz is when the Matriarchy started to seriously debate humanity's SPECTRE bid. After Torfan, it was all but done."

"Thank fuck I wasn't at Torfan. It was a unholy mess on all levels." replied Shepard before she frowned. "Wait. Torfan was five years before I got picked for SPECTRE. You guys don't move _that_ slow."

Nasilea smiled. "The Matriarchy informed the Alliance that humanity's SPECTRE bid would be looked upon favorably if you were included as a candidate. For that, you needed to be promoted to a rank commensurate with SPECTRE responsibilities first."

"Scores of other people did more during the Blitz. All I did was my job."

"Shepard, the daughters of Matriarchs Tyra and Hesa were in that bunker you were protecting on Elysium. For the last few centuries, they've been the crucial swing vote in the Matriarchy."

While Shepard buried her face in her hands, Miranda coughed. This was turning out to be a _very_ informative insight into both galactic and internal Asari politics. "Matriarch Nasilea, Torfan was held up as butchery by influential elements in galactic society. I would have thought the controversy would have delayed our bid."

"Because Torfan showed the galaxy that humanity had quads," said Aethyta. "The Volus have been petitioning for council status for hundreds of years, while at the same time complaining that the council do something about piracy against their ships, then not doing anything about the pirates. Idiots."

"Meanwhile, humanity shows up and starts some colonies in a tough neighborhood. They get trashed, so you go to the council and cry. Time goes by and just as everyone's thinking that you guys are just the next set of Volus, you go and burn Torfan to the ground."

"Turians love that righteous vengeance stuff," she said with a smile. "So that probably pushed them into supporting you. The Salarians...I don't know. We probably bribed them with something to 'maintain the integrity of the council', to avoid the embarrassment of a two to one council vote."

"Aethyta is mostly correct," said Nasilea. "Much to my great surprise. Perhaps a century's worth of bartending and wandering has calmed her down."

"Fuck you, Nassie."

"Enough," stated Shepard, shaking her head slightly as the first inklings of a headache began to appear. "We've established that the Asari like me. But that's not enough to vote to bring me back. It's the Reapers, isn't it?"

Seeing the confusion on Aethyta and the sisters' faces, Shepard sighed. "They're ancient artificial intelligences that inhabit massive starships. One of them attacked the Citadel, what was it; twenty months ago?"

"They said that thing was a Geth prototype dreadnought," Aethyta said. "They lied, didn't they?" With that, she glared at Nasilea.

"With good reason, Commander," countered Nasilea. "What do you think would happen if the Citadel Council admitted that every fifty thousand years, all intelligent life in the galaxy above a certain technological level is wiped out? Also, what do you think the reaction would be if it was disclosed that the attack on the Citadel was merely the advanced vanguard for such an omnicide?"

Shepard stared for several moments before cursing. "Fuck, it's the 'Warn or Not to Warn problem'."

This time, Rila was the one to ask the questions. "The not to warn problem?"

Sighing, Shepard rubbed the bridge of her nose. The headache was now coming on in full force. Funny how changing species didn't get rid of that problem. "Back during Earth's Cold War about two hundred years ago, we had tens of thousands of nuclear weapons pointed at each other, all awaiting the signal for atomic annihilation. Someone did a study that raised the question - 'Do we warn people if an attack is underway or not?'"

"Sounds easy? Nope. If people learned an attack was underway, they'd flee the cities, and likely would be stuck in traffic on the highways when the first nukes hit. On the other hand, if you didn't warn them, they'd still be in their homes and workplaces, which would offer some marginal protection against radiation and blast, as opposed to being in a car out in the open. Plus, it would keep the highways and roads open for relief efforts, since only a normal level of traffic would be on them at the time; allowing them to be easily cleared of wrecks by emergency forces afterwards; something that couldn't be done if every road was a traffic jam for miles."

Aethyta chuckled. "That's very... _Krogan_ , Commander."

"Your definition is very close to what Commodore Anderson used, by the way." added Nasilea. "There are also other factors we had to consider. Through the debriefing of you and your crew following the Battle of the Citadel, we know that Sovereign had for some reason or another decided that now was the optimum time for the next galactic cleansing."

"It was our consensus that your actions in preventing the Reapers from using the Citadel to seize control of the Mass Relay system brought us some time. How much time, we don't know; since we can only speculate on their FTL speeds and how far from the galactic disc they're hiding out at."

Nasilea sighed. "If we let the population know that the Reapers are coming to end our civilizations in five to ten years; galactic chaos would ensure. People would question the Council's legitimacy..."

"...and the goddess damned Matriarchs," interrupted Aethyta. "Would fuck things up with a fifty-year long debate on whether or not to appoint a committee to study the subject." A moment passed before she sighed. "Sorry, sensitive subject."

"Aethyta is correct, though. We cannot afford a lengthy public debate either. We know that Sovereign had deep contacts throughout galactic society through Spectre Saren and Matriarch Benezia. The Reapers likely have other sleeping Reapers throughout the galaxy acting as observers, who likely were awakened by whatever distress signals Sovereign may have sent."

"If we begin an obvious mass mobilization," concluded Nasilea, "it is highly likely that the Reapers will take note and order their observers to engage in active operations. Given the damage a single Reaper did at the Citadel, we need more time to prepare countermeasures."

"Why didn't I get told of this?" questioned Shepard, a disgusted look on her face. "They sent me to hunt _Geth_ in the fringes!"

"You _were_ going to be informed. It had been planned to recall the _Normandy_ for extended refit following your anti-Geth mission, which by the way was _very_ important - we had to be sure that any Geth remnants outside the Perseus Veil were eliminated, given their proclivities for acting as agents for the Reapers."

Nasilea sighed. "The reason for excessive secrecy is because when we began investigating Sovereign's wreckage; we found that even heavily damaged intelligence nodes had significant cyberwarfare capabilities; to the point of corrupting heavily firewalled investigatory systems. We were saved from a secondary disaster on the Citadel because of STG policy to air-gap BLACK THUNDER classified computing systems, which the Citadel Council adopted for dealing with artificial intelligences."

"It's part of the reason why we are here," she said, pointing to the temple around them. "The Temple of Piares is eighty kilometers into a 'dark zone' established on Thessia for planetary-based radio telescopes centuries ago. Even Operative Lawson's omnitool has been temporarily removed. If you had survived your anti-Geth mission, you would have likely been briefed in the West Sahara Scientific Zone on Earth."

"If we can't prepare openly, then what are we to do?" asked Falere.

"For now," replied Miranda. "We eliminate operatives and forces working for the Reapers to clear the battlefield and hinder Reaper efforts to prepare the Milky Way for omnicide. Cerberus has identified two possible Reaper-allied forces. The first one are the Collectors. We suspect they may be involved in a series of slowly escalating disappearances of human wild-cat colonies."

"Disappearances?" asked Shepard.

"Yes. Every fifteen to thirty days, a human colony suddenly drops from the extranet without warning. Each one is always a few days' travel from a mass relay. When ships arrive, they find the colony buildings still standing, but every single human is gone. Food is set out on the tables, like people were about to sit down for dinner and then they just disappeared into thin air."

"What about security systems? Orbital satellites?"

"We've tried that, Shepard. Every single electronic system in these colonies is hit by an intense, concentrated EMP event that our instruments estimate to have lasted at least a full day. That much power for so long, turns even crystal wafer storage into mush."

"Why do you think the Collectors are involved?"

"Every single colony lost so far has been in the Terminus Systems. The Collectors are known to only travel within the Terminus Systems, or a few days' travel from them. Also, unusual ship wake signatures have been found near every destroyed colony. The only signatures that comes close to matching are Collector drive signatures we've obtained over the years."

"Okay," replied Shepard. "The Collectors _may_ be involved, but it's likely that stopping them means a trip through the Omega-Four relay. I'd rather not do that."

"The Omega-Four relay?" asked Rila. "Why's that so bad?"

"That relay was bad news when I was a maiden," replied Aethyta. "It was bad news when my mother was a maiden. For _thousands_ of years, treasure hunters have tried to bust through the relay, but _nobody_ has ever come back. The _only_ ones who come back are the Collectors."

She paused. "If you want to kill yourself, there are less costly ways than trying to bust into Omega-Four."

"Okay," added Shepard. "Who's number two on the hit parade?"

"The Shadow Broker."

Shepard sighed. "Are you serious? First the Collectors and now the Shadow Broker? Are you deliberately trying to get me killed again?"

"He's already killed you, Shepard." Nasilea stated. "It's about time he got the favor returned."

"Wait, wait," muttered Shepard in irritation. "The Shadow Broker didn't kill me."

"Shepard," Miranda said with a sigh. "Alliance procedures for warships require that the ship's log, which includes the current and estimated future ship locations, be uploaded back to Arcturus station at Alliance Standard Midnight."

"So?"

"Investigation of Arcturus logs by the Alliance Shipping Board showed that a Lieutenant Barajas opened the _Normandy's_ logs sixteen hours before the attack. Mr. Barajas was not authorized to open the _Normandy's_ logs; but before he could be interrogated by Alliance Military Police, he committed suicide."

"It was quite hard," Miranda continued, "to trace Mr. Barajas' financial records, as he kept a good portion of them in Volus banking concerns; but we were able to find the remnants of a transaction from a bank that the Shadow Broker was known to use at that period in time."

"Finally, the Shadow Broker tried to use Mr. Wilson to delay and then destroy Project LAZARUS. He's the reason why you're feeling quite _blue_ these days. Frankly, Shepard, the only reason I can think of for him to want to kill you, not once, but twice, is that his clients want you dead. The only clients we can think of," she finished. "who want you dead that _badly_ are the Reapers."

Shepard closed her eyes. No matter how much she wanted to deny it, the logic made sense. _Those bastards_ , she thought. In her mind, she could still see Pressley impaled to the overhead of the CIC by a support beam; along with Liara staring at her from the other side of the escape pod hatch, her eyes watery with tears. _They're going to pay for killing my crew._

"I'm in. Where do we start?"

Nasilea chuckled. "Not so fast. For one, you need to have a new identity established. You can't be going out openly as Captain Jane Shepard, at least; not yet."

" _Captain_?"

"Posthumous promotion," replied Miranda. "You also received another Blue Heart. They talked about giving you a _third_ Star of Terra for firing that pod from the other side of the door, but since it was so soon after you being awarded your _second_ Star of Terra, they downgraded it to the Meritorious Service Medal."

"How come you've been calling me 'Commander' up until now?"

"Our chief psychologist advised us to hold off on dropping things like that until you had some time to adjust."

"Thanks...I guess. So, since I can't go as Jane Shepard; I assume you have something already set up?"

A predatory grin eased across Nasilea's features. "Yes, we already do. Dalisia of House T'Prave."

Out of the corner of her eye, Shepard saw Aethyta turning a deep shade of angry purple. "What the goddess damned hells is this, Nassie?"

"She's already convinced her _adrogatio atrikós_ , Aethyta T'Prave, to form a private military corporation named _Nova_. Seems Matriarch Aethyta got tired of tending bars and decided to help her daughter get started in the business for some excitement."

"I _already_ have a daughter," muttered Aethyta, her teeth clenched so tightly that Shepard thought they'd shatter.

"Now you have _another_. We're assigning your daughter to another agent. Your job now is to make sure the Major here can pass as an Asari and to provide actual experience in your cover identities as mercenaries."

"I swear by the Goddess' azure, if _anything_ happens to my daughter, I'm going to kill you."

"Noted."

As Shepard watched the two matriarchs staring daggers at each other, a thought occurred to her.

"What happens to the sisters?" With that, she thumbed towards Falere and Rila.

Nasilea frowned. "Them? They'll be retained here as Temple Matrons. They know too much to return to Leussus."

Shepard shook her head. "If we're going to run a mercenary company as cover, I'm going to need more than just me and Aethyta as company employees."

"You can't!" Nasilea snapped, face turning a deep purple. " _Ardat-Yakshi_ aren't allowed off Lessus!"

"Yet," replied Shepard. "They're here. So I suspect there are workarounds."

"Travel beyond Lessus is only permitted if escorted by a Matriarch or Justicar."

"If I may," Miranda said with a touch of smugness in her voice. It wasn't often that you managed to get one over a Matriarch, and the opportunity was too great to resist. "Cerberus was already tracking a Justicar for future recruitment. Her psychological profile indicated that she'd be a suitable fit for the extremely dangerous operations we foresaw in the future as part of Shepard's crew."

"Who?" _Goddess, please don't let it be..._ thought Nasilea.

"Justicar Samara."

Aethyta heard the sisters gasp. _As much as I'm enjoying Nassie get run over, this could be bad_ , she thought. "Mother!" exclaimed Falere. _Yep, this got bad._

"Absolutely out of mind!" shouted Nasilea.

"If I recall correctly, Justicars are sworn to put the Justicar Code before family or possessions," Shepard said with a carefully neutral expression on her face. "If Samara follows the Code, we should have no problems. If however, Samara is not acceptable, I believe Matriarch Aethyta would fulfill the requirements of a guardian."

 _That's some Matriarch level verbal judo,_ Aethyta thought. _As fucked up as it might be being the guardian for a pair of Ardat-Yakshi, Shepard might be fun enough to make it worthwhile...as long as she stays away from Liara._

"That would be...technically acceptable." Nasilea ground out. "However, you are strongly advised to obtain Justicar Samara's services as a secondary guardian, to ease concerns within the Triarchy."

With that, Nasilea clapped her hands, a frown still on her face. Moments later, a servant appeared from the shadows. Working quickly and silently, the servant removed the refreshments. "I'm afraid I must call this to an end, as I cannot delay my public affairs much longer."

"Operative Lawson, you must leave Thessia by dawn tomorrow. We cannot delay customs any further without raising undue interest. You may return when Shepard has finished her training."

"Falere and Rila, you are released by orders of the Triarchy into the guardianship of Matriarch Aethyta and Justicar Samara when she joins your party. You shall train with Shepard in the meantime."

"Matriarch Aethyta, you are appointed guardian of the Drestia sisters. Additionally, you are to train Captain Shepard in our customs, both peaceful and battle, until you are satisfied that she can pass as a Maiden."

"Shepard, I do not have anything to offer you, but...may the tides be in your favor."

Shepard nodded and made the _siari_ gesture for acceptance. "Thank you, Matriarch. We sail with the tide."

 **Author Notes:**

*) You may note some similarities for plot points with some plot points in "Of Sheep and Battle Chicken" by Logical Premise. I actually started plotting this in my head before I ever read OSABC; because I wanted to do something that involved Falere and Rila, to give them something to do other than pine away at Lessus until they became a plot device, and also because Morinth monologued something crucial during Samara's Loyalty mission:

 ** _"I am the genetic destiny of the Asari, but they are not ready to reveal this, so I must die."_**

It made me think about what exactly made Ardat-Yakshi meldings so lethal, and a reason I came up for that was that they were super-sensitive and also super-powerful melds. I then went into "what could you do if you could burn out someone's nervous system? Would you be able to use that power to overwrite their mind if you had some experience? What would you do with that power?" and it went to the obvious – bring back the dead.

*) This FemShep is based partially off my own FemShep that I did two playthroughs with - I always went with War Hero; and while reading Mass Effect fanfiction (I'm on page 65 of 174 for AO3W fics) I ran across the _Cari'ssi'mi_ series by Joking611, which in _Connections_ , Chapter 4, detailed how Shepard had been found guarding a deep bunker full of Asari. I took that origin story and changed things around a bit for my own attempt at trying to explain how Humanity moved up so fast in galactic politics in just 25~ years. We'll be returning to Elysium in flashbacks in future chapters.

 ***)** The 'Mix Them Up' quote by General Watson is a direct lift from "Mix 'em up. I'm tired of state's rights." by General George Thomas in the American Civil War when asked by a Chaplain whether to sort and bury the dead by state.

*) I imagine the Skyllian Blitz as being essentially Stalingrad compressed down to a little bit more than a day. Google Pavlov's House or the Grain Factory for the kind of fighting I imagined took place. The Batarians opened fire with an orbital bombardment meant to stun people and try to break their will; but they can't level the place, that means dead enslavees, thus defeating the purpose of a slaving raid.

*) The Asari government in the codexes for the games is described as being a loose confederation of independent republics, working together. I've chosen to use three pan-Asari groups - the Temple of Athame, the Justicars and the Council of Republics (their version of the UN, also known informally to aliens as 'the matriarchy') - to provide a sort of trumvirate (aka _Triarchy_ ), with each group choosing a representative for them to make decisions when action is needed **_now_** , not after fifty years of debate.

*) I originally had Liara being referred to as 'Lady Liara', in line with other fics; but I rethought that. While she might be referred that way in private within House T'Soni, in public and in formal addresses, she's simply 'Lady T'Soni'. This is because I'd imagine that the privilege of being referred to simply by your first name is something that the Matriarchs jealously guard. The only other group afforded this privilege are the Justicars, because their training is so deadly, their numbers are so low, and when you swear to the Code, you swear to give up all worldly possessions, including family.

*) The Matriarch mentioned as being neutralized was mentioned in the Cerberus dossier in **_LOTSB_** in ME2:

 _"2181 - Matriarch Tilia Eraza targeted with omega-enkaphalin. Claims of biotic superiority to non-biotics deflated once her powers fail. Voice in citizen legislature considerably diminished."_

It made no sense for Cerberus to target a random matriarch to defeat "claims of biotic superiority" when Cerberus is working on their own biotics; unless someone else called in a favor.

 _Name Sources So Far:_

 **Okeanos** _-_ Capital city of Elysium. Named for the stream of _Okeanos_ that Homer said bordered the Elysian Fields.

 **Samara / Falere /** **Rila / Mirala Drestia** \- The last name is derived from Adrestia - "She whom none can escape". The name is an epithet of Rhea Cybele in her attribute of the Mother who punishes human injustice, which is a transgression of the natural right order of things. The Greeks and Romans identified her with Nemesis.


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N:** Sorry for taking so long. I had most of this done in March 2019, but then real life ™ intervened, with relationships, etc and got me sidetracked for most of 2019…

If you've previously read this fic, go back and re-read it from the start; for I added some new sections and changed some names around. I had almost half a year to tinker and fix some things.

 **PS:** I found the "Shep gets Turianized" fic I mentioned previously. It's **_"The Body I Live In"_** by Calart and Dr Compass over at Archive of Our Own.

 **ADVENA**

 **CHAPTER TWO**

 ** _Cerberus Secure Facility Gamma Five  
Location Unknown_**

"Goddamnit, cut that bastard..."

Tazzik laughed in reply as he fired his M-100S, blowing the hapless Cerberus officer down the hallway in a shower of gore. As the man's entrails slid down the walls, Shadow Broker Assault Teams moved up, their weapons at the ready.

A voice crackled in Tazzik's left ear from the subcranial implant most STG operatives received. "Assault Group Kaf moving, average resistance."

"Good," he said. "Unlimited firepower authorized. No survivors."

Grinning, he leapt into a biotic charge, the corridor smearing into streaks of light. A barricade blurred into view in front of him and he slammed to a stop. A trio of humans wearing the black and gold armor of Cerberus were manning it. It was child's play with his reflexes to shoot all three in the head before they could notice he was there.

While he waited for his assault group to catch up, Tazzik drank a mouthful of eezo-laced energy fluids from his armor's reservoirs. _Odd_ , he thought. _Normally, I'd expect Cerberus to have at least one biotic here; but no sign of any. Could be a trap._

"Task Leader to all Groups. Resistance strangely light. Expect traps."

The sound of stealthy footsteps came down the corridor and moments later, Assault Group Badak arrived; a motley mix of Salarian ex-STG operatives like Tazzik interleaved with a few Turians. Wordlessly, they stacked up outside the door that the barricade was guarding and Tazzik moved into the lead breaching position as his men placed breaching charges on the door.

A slight tilt of his head was all it took. Before the thunder had faded, he was on the other side of the door; smashing a human male wearing Cerberus fatigues to the ground with the stock of his grenade launcher. The man's head made a satisfying _crunch_ and he didn't move other than faint leg twitches as his nervous system tried to keep going.

Stasis chambers lined the walls of this compartment, each one filled with human females in various states of growth. "Sewel," he announced. "Randomly sample them, then destroy."

Moving into the next chamber, he pumped a few rounds of shredder ammo into lab coated humans. When they were red smears against the walls, he relaxed fractionally. _Doesn't Cerberus give their personnel any training? Even the dumbest pyjack knows enough to not try to out-draw a Salarian._

A lab table that one of the humans had been standing next to caught his interest. A badly-burned body was on it; legs gone below the human's knees. His omni-tool beeped, indicating a DNA match with Shepard. "Task Leader to all Groups. Primary target sighted. Sampling operations underway."

The body didn't look like much. The Savior of the Citadel resembled a varren that had been placed on a spit and roasted far too long. Pulling a stasis bag from his armor, he checked it to make sure the bag's vitals were green, then with a single practiced swipe of his omnitool blade, severed the head.

Once the head was in the bag and sealed, out came a brace of tissue samplers from another compartment on his armor. The stasis indicators on the samplers also glowed faint green so Tazzik wasted no time in driving the large bore needles into the human's torso.

As he clipped the bag with the head to his armor and placed the sampling cylinders back into their padded containers, voices crackled over the subdermal commlink.

"Group Kaf reporting in. Engineering secure. Hostiles terminated, securing computer banks now."

"Group Badak reporting. Biosciences secure. Liquidation complete. Biological samples being secured."

"Task Leader here. Samples of primary target acquired. Destroying target now." With that, he took his entire bandoleer of grenades and put it on the body; taking care to ensure they were evenly distributed.

"Task Leader here. Group Kaf, are the scuttling charges planted?"

"Yes."

"Then we're done here."

Walking away, he triggered the grenades. As the body exploded in a pinkish mist behind him, he smirked, unaware that hidden cameras were watching his every move and relaying them back to Cerberus.

 **############**

 ** _Cronos Station  
Illusive Man's Office_**

With a hiss, the QEC-transmitted holographic feed of Gamma Five's interior died as the scuttling charges blew the research station into dust while the heads of Cerberus watched in silence.

"You still have a leak somewhere, Jack."

"Yes. Most unfortunate. Doctor Clements was a skilled administrator. It will be difficult to replace him." Taking a sip from his tumbler of scotch, Harper sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "You were right."

"The Shadow Broker will eventually figure out that you sacrificed Project GEMINI to throw him off Shepard's trail. We need to plan for that."

Before Harper could reply, a beeping noise sounded from the comm panel in his armrest. Glancing away from his co-ruler, he saw that it was Kelly Chambers. Activating the privacy field to shield his co-ruler's identity, he toggled Chambers' call through.

In front of him, a holographic representation of Chambers appeared, flickering slightly every so often. "Doctor, my apologies for making you wait. I was momentarily attending to other matters."

"That's all right, sir. I've completed the supplementary report on Shepard that you asked to be prepared."

Harper sighed and produced a cigar from one of the compartments in his chair. Lighting it, he took a few calming puffs. "Doctor, what you've been told is to be held with the highest regard concerning secrecy. It would be...crippling to our plans if the truth were to emerge before a deception plan was in place."

"I understand." Chambers paused for a moment. "Thank you for telling me everything. It made this report significantly easier, knowing all the variables in play." She sighed. "There really are no precedents for anything like this, other than cases of paralysis or disability. Even the information the Matriarchy sent us is very limited. We're in uncharted waters, sir."

"Why don't you start from the beginning with Shepard's profile, then?"

"In her last Alliance mental evaluation, Shepard scored fairly high on the Harshov scale with Asari. But then again, almost everyone does. This should help significantly in overcoming self-identity issues due to the clear discontinuity of corporeal existence implied by the Asari form."

 _Those damned idiots_ ; thought Chambers, remembering the endless staff debates on Shepard's appearance. _They couldn't understand why I was arguing for both a body as close to before as we could make it, yet one with clear signs of trauma; because Shepard knew she was going to die - the_ Stalingrad _was at least thirty hours away at redline speed - this wasn't a case of being trapped under ice for thirty minutes before being revived. The scars would have allowed her to believe in the polite fiction that there was still some continuity of existence._

"The self-identity and discontinuity issues are the most pressing things for us. It's excellent that Operative Lawson managed to raise the subject of the Reapers and the colony disappearances with Shepard immediately, thereby triggering Shepard's sense of duty. As long as she has the sense that other people are depending on her, she won't think too hard on theological and metaphysical issues."

Harper coughed. "And her loyalties, Doctor?"

Chambers paused for a moment. "That...is a complex subject, sir. Shepard's previous profiles show a strong sense of loyalty to both the Alliance and personnel under her command. Her loyalty to the Drestia sisters is in line with previous behavior. Additionally, mentor relationships similar to the one she holds with Commodore Anderson are likely to develop with Matriarch Aethyta and Justicar Samara once she is recruited."

"Elsewhere", she continued. "Her relationship with Liara T'Soni is rather complex from the standpoint of influence. We have samples of their private electronic correspondence on the _Normandy_ , audio recordings from the _Normandy's_ Flight Data Recorder, footage from the two together on the Council-backed public relations tour immediately after the Battle of the Citadel, and private video mail from the then-Commander to her mother, Captain Hannah Shepard, dated to just hours before the destruction of the _Normandy_."

"Based on this information and Asari neural engrams we found in Shepard's cerebral cortex during LAZARUS, it is my emphatic recommendation that we treat the prospective Shepard-T'Soni relationship as that of a heavily bonded couple." Chambers paused at that before continuing. "Turning one against the other is practically _impossible_ and is emphatically advised _against_."

"Yet, in earlier reports, you rated T'Soni's influence on Shepard as a marginal issue."

"T'Soni is not your typical Asari," replied Chambers. "She's spent the last sixty-eight years in higher education or on scientific expeditions. Her only significant interpersonal relationships that we know of have been with her mother and Shepard. If you had to push me, I'd say that Shepard is actually the greater influence, rather than the other way around."

Harper nodded. "I'm looking at your report here. Your final recommendation is that we recruit T'Soni as soon as possible."

"Yes. It leads back to the discontinuity of existence issues I mentioned earlier. While the immediate concern of the Reapers and Terminus System disappearances will keep Shepard going for a while, eventually self-doubt and concern will reassert themselves." Chambers paused. "I'd feel more comfortable in signing the psych waiver for Shepard if there were more anchors to her past than just T'Soni. Project ARGO would be ideal."

"We're working on that, Doctor. Unfortunately, the Shadow Broker has...interrupted our scheduling. The best we can do is three months."

Chambers sighed. "Three months isn't the best; but Shepard should be able to keep going until then. I'd still like to see her as soon as possible for a full psych workup."

"I'll put her in your hands as soon as the Asari cut her loose," replied Harper. "Cerberus out."

Moments after Chambers' holo faded from view, so did the privacy barrier. Purple eyes stared back at Harper's own cybernetic eyes.

Matriarch Trellani T'Gaea, co-founder of Cerbereus, sighed and rubbed her crest. "Jack, if Shepard and T'Soni are bonded that deeply...it means they need to be reunited before their mental health is affected." Looking down, she checked her omnipad. "T'Soni's managed to survive this long through Maiden's Fixation with the Broker, but the Matriarchy's sources say that she wakes up screaming and crying almost every night. On the other end, Shepard's only been 'awake' for a day, Jack. She's likely to develop _Lymarsa_ syndrome soon, if contact with T'Soni isn't restored."

"Things were so much easier before we involved the Matriarchs," Harper said with a sigh. "Shepard's value is affected by her new...status. Our enemies would love to trumpet the fact that we spent four billion credits on an Asari."

"That may be so, Jack." Trellani paused while she drank from a decanter of wine. "But we now have breathing room. Bringing Shepard back almost exactly as she was would have worked before the Shadow Broker decided to declare war on us. Now? A human Shepard would constantly be fighting off Broker assassins and saboteur teams, whereas now...nobody will pay any attention to Dalisia T'Prave. She's just another Asari maiden shooting her way across the galaxy as a Merc."

"Sometimes you need a symbol, Jack. Other times, you need subtlety. This is one of those times."

"Regrettably, I'm inclined to agree, Trelly. For now, we'll have to go with the Dalisia T'Prave personality, until the Shadow Broker is eliminated. But we'll need to start planning for afterwards. Shepard's too great a symbol to remain 'dead', particularly with the Reaper threat on the horizon. I suppose we'll have to negotiate some sort of agreement with the Matriarchy over Shepard."

Trellani smirked at that. It wasn't very often one was in the position to dictate to the Matriarchy. "As much as I'd like to upend those _fossils_ , we can't afford the kind of disruption revealing the _Codexio_ would cause. We could claim that Shepard's brain is being kept alive in an Asari body through...various measures."

Harper's eyes shifted imperceptibly as he considered the variables. "Yes. Bio scramblers in her armor could obfuscate things. It would be as medically impossible as reviving a shattered and frozen corpse; so our prestige would rise and we'd attract more employees of the late Doctor Clement's caliber."

"The truth will come out eventually, though."

"Yes," he admitted. "But hopefully by then, we'll all be too embroiled in the Reaper threat for such trivialities."

###########

 **Council of Republics Building**

 **Serrice, Thessia  
Parnitha System**

"We are gathered here to discuss several matters," announced Matriarch Moraphia T'Rari, a purple-skinned elder whose family hailed from the mountains near Attena. Moraphia was approaching her thirteenth century, making her one of the eldest matriarchs alive.

"The first is Lady Liara T'Soni, first of House T'Soni, daughter of Benezia."

A hush fell across the subterranean chamber as the nine other Matriarchs that made up the Council of Decova stopped their idle chit chat and focused on the meeting. Moraphia noted with some amusement that Matriarch Letaria D'Rous of Serrice, a newcomer to the Council at only nine hundred and six; was the first to speak up. _They're always so eager when they get into the Decova. Then reality sets in and they realize discretion is the best virtue._

"Are we absolutely sure that the Benezia situation has been resolved, regarding the Temple?"

Moraphia's lips curled up in an almost imperceptible smirk at the mention of the Temple of Athame. _Every Athame-damned Matriarch inducted into the Council_ _always fixates on the Temple for the first fifty years or so._

Across the table, Matriarch Alela of the Republic of Dassus sighed. "Matriarch Letaria, this council had Matriarch Benezia under investigation in one form or another for the last one hundred and eighteen years in no less than four RAPTOR-level investigations. In each case, we found that Benezia had no knowledge of the Temple."

"Then why did she suddenly resign from her position as a High Priestess of Athame?"

Another sigh. "Because she discovered that the _Codexio Elina_ ; one of the key tenets of Athamism, was a forgery written by Batollna Lius eight thousand years ago, rather than being the true testament of Elina M'Taos."

Letaria shook her head. "And her _daughter_ becoming a Doctor in _Prothean_ Archaeology?"

"The Council has required educators to deeply interview applicants for certain fields for some time now as a security measure. Doctor T'Soni was interviewed twice; first for undergraduate and then for graduate studies. If you'll excuse me for a moment?"

With that, Alela checked a thick folder on her desk. This deep in the Council building, especially in the Chambers of the Decova; all electronic devices were prohibited. She liked to joke to her fellow Members that 'it's just like the ninth millennium in here'.

"Doctor T'Soni said that what caused her to get into archaeology was seeing some Prothean artifacts that were on tour at the local library. The next day, she dug up half of Falrais Park looking for 'Prothies'. The report here is quite detailed, because apparently, she insisted the Park Department document the dig site 'thoroughly'. The next day, Benezia bought her a copy of _Prothean Discoveries of the Second Age_ by Doctor Atruix."

"Is this verified?"

"Yes. We have the electronic receipt for the book purchase, plus the security footage from the Park Department." With that Alela closed the folder. "In any event, it's all academic; because the Armali Guards raided the T'Soni estates immediately after Saren was disowned by the Council and Benezia's links to Saren became known. Our operatives were embedded with the Guards and the estate was thoroughly searched."

Letaria frowned. "What about Saren?"

"That potential leak was fixed for us by Commander...excuse me, _Captain_ Shepard. We did the usual investigation per protocols, the same we did with the T'Soni estate. I can confidently say that the Benezia folder can be closed."

"In any event," replied Moraphia. "Revisiting the Benezia issue was quite illuminating, since we're dealing with her daughter, Liara as one of our main issues today."

"There are some side issues I have to raise about Liara," stated Matriarch Naslilea. "My biggest crestache as the Public Executor for Armali right now is House T'Soni, specifically succession."

At that, everyone groaned. Normally, the deaths of Matriarchs were telegraphed well in advance, with the Matriarchs recognizing the early signs of senescence and carefully setting their affairs in order with the last fifty years of their lives. None of that had happened with Benezia.

"There's the issue of House T'Soni's legal liabilities as a result of Benezia's actions with Saren, on top of taxes." Naslilea rubbed her crest in frustration. "It's going to take years to figure out the tax bill _alone_ for the House, and Liara hasn't helped matters any. Normally, we'd have a clear legal line of succession from Benezia to Liara, as she was Benezia's only child and any other claimants had their claims terminated long ago."

"Shepard." muttered Letaria.

"Yes," came the reply. "Before the Captain's death on the _Normandy_ , she signed the paperwork for a bonding. They're legally binding upon signature and the physical copies were recovered from the _Normandy's_ wreckage. With Shepard's death, per Matriarchial succession law, her claim on House T'Soni transferred upwards to her mother, Admiral Hannah Shepard."

Alela frowned. "Have we tried contacting the Admiral to settle the claim?"

"My office's legal adviser told me not to attempt contact with Admiral Shepard until the required time for mourning had passed, to avoid any impression of forcing a contract onto a bereaved family member. In light of the relatively...delicate situation, I complied with legal's advice."

"And?"

"Unfortunately, by the time the provisional 'mourning period' had passed, Admiral Shepard had been reassigned to a new project in the Human Admiralty. I tried contacting her, but her staff replied that she would be quite busy for the next few years and unable to travel to Thessia for the formal settling of claims."

Alela grunted in frustration at that. "Why in Athame's damned name did Benezia have to die so soon and leave us with this mess? Sixty years. That's all we needed, sixty years for Shepard to die of old age. Athame-damned maidens," she muttered, conveniently forgetting that she had once been a young maiden six and a half centuries ago.

"Thankfully, we have time," Naslilea said without irony. "Per existing House law, if the legal heir is under three hundred years old, a trust administered by the oldest surviving close relative oversees the estate until the heir is of age. If no relative with a claim can be found, that responsibility passes onto the bondmate's family. As you well know, because of lifespan differences, the age of eligibility is calculated differently for each species. Despite Admiral Shepard's eligibility, her declination of responsibilities for now means that I, as Public Executor for Armali, am in charge of House T'Soni."

Naslilea scowled slightly. "It's a 'responsibility' I could do without, so I'm just going to keep this all on ice and let the court cases against the Estate resolve themselves." At that last, she smirked. Asari courts were notorious for their _lengthy_ deliberations. _Plus, I gain leverage over both Shepard and T'Soni this way._

"This is all a minor sidenote," Moraphia interrupted. "Irrespective of how much trouble T'Soni is causing poor Naslilea at work; we are discussing T'Soni's current behavior. Specifically, her rather _successful_ information brokerage business on Ilium."

She cleared her throat deliberately. "And before you ask, Letaria; a RAPTOR-level investigation of T'Soni was begun the moment we received word that she had legally registered _Carentan Group_ on Ilium. She's got no knowledge of the temple, at least in her records. What we found however, was almost as disturbing."

"T'Soni has links with operatives we've identified as Cerberus agents." Moraphia paused to let those words sink in.

 _Of course she does. She's the one who gave Shepard to Cerberus_ , thought Naslilea. _However, I can't just say that._

" _Cerberus_ ," muttered one of the Matriarchs, who Naslilea saw was Irellis from Occa. "This is the fifth maiden with links to _them_ in the last two years."

"Irellis," replied Naslilea. _Of course we're having problems_ , she thought. Humans were the closest thing yet to the Asaroidian form discovered in nearly three thousand years of exploring the galaxy, giving them an edge in counter-intelligence operations against the Republics that the other races didn't have.

"It really doesn't matter whether or not a few maidens get wrapped up in Cerberus. Our analysts are projecting that Humanity will vote with Asari interests around fifty percent of the time. A hundred years from now, seventy percent." She smirked slightly. "We'd effectively control half the Council's votes without any need for inducements, like we do now with the Salarians or Turians."

Irellis scowled. "I still remain concerned over _their_ effect on _us_."

Narritia of Pisci coughed. "We've talked enough about _that_ Athame-damned holovid in previous meetings."

"That was a deliberate psychological operation," Irellis flatly stated. "If not by Cerberus, then by one of the Human Nations."

" _Enough!_ " shouted Moraphia. "We will discuss human penetrations and our responses at a _future_ date. Naslilea, you're in charge of the surveillance on T'Soni. Would you detail it for us, please?"

"Certainly. Once the initial RAPTOR-level investigation was completed, Matriarch Aethyta was...gently reminded of her duties to the Matriarchy and she's fed us information on T'Soni."

"Is that wise, using T'Soni's _atrikós_?" asked Narrita.

"I wouldn't have chosen her, but it gave her something to do. She was beginning to become an _annoyance_ again." At that last, everyone's eyes flickered around the room knowingly. Aethyta T'Prave's ability to cause trouble was semi-legendary; especially her notorious speech before the Armali Conclave a little over a century ago.

"And before everyone starts worrying," added Nasilea. "We're moving Aethyta away from active surveillance of T'Soni onto other projects, before she can become attached to her daughter. A standard protective team will replace her."

"Protective team?"

"T'Soni is a _very_ good information broker." emphasized Nasilea. "Good enough that she steps on people's crests often. Aethyta's had to stop kill-teams twice now. Then there's the Shadow Broker business." With that, Nasilea held up her hand to forestall questions.

"She's a mess psychologically. Classic _Lymarsa_ syndrome." Nasilea said, using the ancient term for when an exceptionally deep bond was abruptly severed. "She's become convinced that the Broker was behind the _Normandy's_ destruction. So naturally…"'

"Spare us from maidens on a _Lymarsa_ run," muttered Alela. "Scores have tried to take out the Shadow Broker in the last century, including STG. They all failed."

Nasilea shrugged. "If she takes him out, the Broker's organizational remnants can be swept up by our own teams. If she fails and dies, we close the House T'Soni files for good. Either way, the tides win."

"Now that the T'Soni matter is settled," ruled Moraphia. "Our next matter is the Reaper threat."

At that, Nasilea rubbed her crest. _Athame's Tits, another three hours…_

 ** _The Adasti Grottoes underneath the Council of Republics Building_**

 **Serrice, Thessia**

Fifteen thousand years ago, the members of the first Serrice-Armali Council had met in these grottoes that lay under the original Serrice Castle which was now long gone, even by Asari standards. Now, nobody went in them, except for occasional archaeologists, as they'd been sealed off five thousand years ago to protect the inscriptions and markings from deterioration.

By tradition, the Triarchy met once a year; but in the last two years, they'd met multiple times each year; with the last meeting being only weeks ago. In silence, broken only by the muted hum of dehumidifiers, the Triarchy members filed into the anachronistic ultra-modern office cube that had been erected in one of the grotto chambers.

As the hatch to the office cube swung shut with a muted thud, the harsh noise of random eezo field generators filled the grotto. Inside, a rather tired Naslilea looked over at her counterparts.

"My apologies. The meeting of the Decova ran a bit...long," she said with a weary sigh. Chief Justicar Ireena, clad in the traditional red armor of the Order, nodded back with an imperceptible smirk.

"My sympathies," added High Priestess Tesora. "Watching council debates for fifty years as a maiden as part of my service to the Temple was enough to put me off to politics. We only have one thing to discuss tonight, and that is Captain Shepard."

Naslilea looked each of her fellow Triarchy members in the eye and took a deep breath. "Shepard's survived the night wind." A silence hung in the room for a moment. "We need to talk about what we're going to do with Shepard. What worked with the past survivors won't work for her."

"Shepard was already fairly high on the _Roiga_ scale," Tesora said. "Swaying her to the _proper_ point of view shouldn't be that hard."

Ireena shook her head. "If Shepard had been born on Thessia instead of Temetria," she said, using the Asari name for Earth. It was a constant amusement to the Asari that humans simply called their homeworld 'Earth', when it was nearly three-quarters water like Thessia. Humans might be willing to call their homeworld an utterly drab name, but not the Asari. "We would already be tracking her as a potential candidate for the Order."

At that, Naslilea's crest pulsed slightly. The Order's veto over the use of the Night Wind had been why each use was over a millennium apart. They'd never figure out how exactly the Night Wind worked if the Justicars kept insisting on ideological purity.

"She can be trusted to keep the secret of the Night Wind," stated Ireena. "But at the same time her _nishi_ will demand that she be out there, countering the Reapers. With every battle she fights, the chances of the galaxy learning that Shepard lives rises." The Chief Justicar paused. "Explaining her new status will be quite...difficult."

At that, Tesora laughed. "You're thinking of this as a _problem_ to be solved, Ireena, rather than as an _advantage_. Yes, we'll have to think up something to shroud the Night Wind in secrecy, but this is almost _perfect_."

"Perfect?"

"That biopic of Shepard that was released a few months ago _tripled_ human traffic into our consulates," replied Tesora. "Sales of _Vaenia_ are up several hundred percent in areas controlled by the Alliance. What do you think happens when she comes back from the dead a nice _healthy_ blue?" Tesora smiled. Too many humans were of that ghastly shade where you couldn't tell if they were alive or a bloodless corpse.

"It might help counter the problems we're encountering with foreign-born Asari in Human space," said Naslilea. "Shepard's been held up as the near-perfect human role model by various propaganda outfits in human space. When that _perfect_ human returns from the dead with a nice crest; the young ones will be more receptive to returning to the proper path."

 **############**

 ** _Alliance Naval Ordnance Laboratory, Fairhaven  
[REDACTED] System, Alliance Space_**

The fragment of the being known as Sovereign pulsed with hatred. It had once been part of a greater whole, a _legion_ ; but now it was a shell of what it had been. And the worst thing of all, what remained _knew_ this and was…enraged.

Before, the lesser beings had dared to approach and the fragment had tried to subvert them. But these beings were too crafty and they had withdrawn to a distance, poking and prodding with devices that were too simple to subvert.

Seething with anger, the fragment fell back into what could best be termed 'standby' mode, waiting for a susceptible techno-organic form to move within its quantum influence field.

It sensed the incoming impact moments before it occurred, and energized its internal pathways, rearranging its very atomic structure in order to channel away the energies the organics were hurling at it, as it had done so hundreds of times before. If it had a face, the fragment would be smirking.

There were no words in the vocabulary of the twelve races of the galaxy, except perhaps some obscure languages now dead, for the shock the fragment felt as the railgun round _shattered_ it into scores of pieces.

 _Nonononononononono_ it shouted even as it's hyperconsciousness began to fragment along with its remaining body.

Deep inside a secure conference room with the latest holodisplays, Admiral Steven Hackett watched as the remains of the Reaper began to drift towards the event horizon of the black hole that dominated the area around NOL Fairhaven.

Once the central fragment had been smashed, all the gravitational tethers from the miniaturized eezo thrusters holding the piece in place near the event horizon were automatically shut off and the thrusters redlined into burning out. The races of the Council had learned the hard way, to never take any chances where Reapers were involved.

"BLUE BADGER looks good, Steve."

Hackett nodded at the sound of Commodore David Anderson's voice. "Yes. It only took thirty lives and almost a billion credits," he replied.

"At least now we have a fighting chance, thanks to their sacrifice."

"David, the casualty projections of a Reaper invasion don't keep me awake at night. It's the fact that they've done this how many _thousands of times before_ us that does. Have our counterparts had this conversation _hundreds_ of times before?"

"I can't speak about xenoarchaeology Steve, but I do know what the Battle of the Citadel was," stated Anderson. "It was a classic decapitation attack. If it wasn't been for Shepard, our fleets would been crushed along with the Turian and Asari fleets when they responded to the Citadel emergency."

"We'd have reserve forces, of course," he said, referring to the fleets controlled by NATO and the Shanghai Pact which were confined by the Treaty of Farixen to within ten light years of Earth. Likewise, each major Asari Republic had its own fleet limited to the vicinity of Thessia. "But they wouldn't have been of much use."

Anderson paused for a moment, remembering the reports on the Prothean AI that Shepard had found on Ilos. Scientists had managed to interrogate it for a few hours before the mental stress after thousands of years of inactivity was too much and the AI had degenerated into rampancy.

"The Reapers opened their attack on the Protheans at the Citadel with hundreds of ships, not one. They let the Protheans feed forces into the region for a few days, then the Mass Relays stopped working for anyone who wasn't a Reaper. Ships went through, but never returned; like with the Omega Four Relay."

At that, newly-promoted Rear Admiral Hannah Shepard cleared her throat. "We have some evidence that Sovereign was trying to seize the Mass Relays. Salarian investigations on the intrusions made by Sovereign into the Citadel's network show that it was pushing into the 'hard program' areas connecting the Citadel to the Mass Relay network."

Centuries of investigation by computer programmers and scientists had shown that the Citadel was linked somehow to the Mass Relay network throughout the galaxy, with the strongest evidence being the holographic map of the galaxy's relays that had so transfixed Lienea Iari, the first being to gaze upon it thousands of years ago. That map wasn't a simple static representation, but a live map, showing individual relays 'firing', and reporting the mass being sent through, using the atomic mass of hydrogen as a constant.

Over the years, careful attempts to alter the codebase in minor ways such as changing the color of the map display had been made, but they lasted only hours before the Keepers came in and restored the code to 'stock' format. After each attempt, all discussions ended with everyone agreeing not to take things further, for danger of damaging the Mass Relay network irretrievably.

Looking at everyone, Hannah paused for a moment before continuing. " _Commander_ Shepard's report on Vigil was quite illuminating. Those last Protheans couldn't save _themselves_ , but they saved _us_ by giving us a fighting chance by breaking the Reapers' control over the Keepers."

Anderson nodded. "It's taken us a year to crack the secret behind Sovereign's extraordinary resistance to standard capital ship weapons. Manufacturing the new railgun projectiles is trivial; but can you imagine trying to do this in a shattered galaxy with each system isolated?" He paused, letting the implications of that sink in. "The only way to transmit information would be by slow FTL courier ships, while the Reapers would have all the advantages of interior lines of communications and transportation through the Mass Relays."

Hackett sighed, feeling terribly old. "I wish we still had Shepard. What about those rumors of Shepard being seen in the Terminus systems, David?"

The rumors had started within days of the _Normandy's_ destruction. Captain Shepard had been seen somewhere, only to be followed by ever more outlandish rumors of her being somewhere thousands of light-years away simultaneously. Alliance Intelligence had spent a solid half-year tracking down the rumors on the off chance that Shepard had survived, before giving up.

"People want to believe," Anderson said in a weary voice. "So they keep believing."

Hackett stared pensively off into the walls of the conference room for a moment. "My apologies," he said, looking at Hannah. "For that unpleasant business involving your daughter and what we've asked you to do."

"No apology is needed, sir. I understand." Hannah paused. "As for that job you gave me? Liara T'Soni is an extremely stubborn woman. She's rejected every offer I've made, but I can't blame her. The stuff I'm cleared to tell her about GREEN CHEESE wouldn't get a varren into a pyjack nest."

"You're authorized to put together a level three packet, Hannah. We need T'Soni."

 **######**

 **Nos Astra, Ilium**

Outside, it was still local pre-dawn darkness in Nos Astra, with only the hardiest early risers going about their business. The city itself was still quite new by Asari standards, having been one of the landing sites for the settlers of the Seventh Asari Expansion Wave when they had colonized Ilium some five centuries ago.

Ilium had grown rather fast for an Asari colony. In polite company, Ilium's residents pointed out to its location right off the main relay routes between the fast-growing Terminus Systems and the more settled regions of Asari space as to why it had leapfrogged other colonies settled in the Seventh Wave.

In less polite company, it was because Ilium, like Omega, was a place where almost anything could be done or gotten...for a price.

The apartment building that Liara T'Soni lived in was a prime example of Ilium's duality. The building was fairly new, being only a century and a half old and furnished in what could be called 'neo-classical noir' with polished stone floors and brushed metal furnishings tastefully decorating the walls.

Where do people with very powerful enemies sleep? Next to other people with equally powerful enemies. Almost every resident of the building was connected in some way or another to Ilium's thriving underworld; leading to a sort of unspoken truce by everyone to leave business at the door. If that wasn't enough, the doormen, beneath their impeccably tailored suits, wore the finest light tactical armor that money could buy.

From a rooftop nearly two kilometers away, a pair of pale green eyes set into a cerulean face criss-crossed with purple markings took in the details of Liara's apartment on the twenty-first floor; or at least what details could be made out. The scanner before Tela Vasir was one of the best in known space, yet the image was oddly indistinct, a result of the building's privacy fields along with T'Soni's own scrambler field.

Arrayed haphazardly throughout the apartment was a collection of Prothean artifacts, the list of which was in Vasir's Omnitool. The most expensive, a second-age piece which her sources had assayed at 1.9 million credits; had been discovered by T'Soni herself over fifty years ago at the beginning of her career.

Upstairs, through a second, independent scrambler field dedicated solely to the sleeping areas, Vasir could barely make out T'Soni's restless form on the bed. _Bitch probably has a military grade kinetic shield installed in that balcony, so no clean sniper shot when she gets up to pee at night_.

Scowling, Vasir began to make notations for a report to the Shadowbroker. The Broker had issued standing orders that T'Soni's security measures were to be evaluated on a semi-monthly basis. At that, Vasir had to sigh, the pureblood was good at causing problems, but her main claim to fame had been being Shepard's squeeze; and since Shepard was dead…T'Soni was out of the loop, permanently.

 _####_

 **Liara T'Soni's Apartment**

The sleeping form of Lady Liara T'Soni, first of House T'Soni, daughter of Benezia, shifted uneasily as she dreamed the nightmare that returned with depressing regularity almost every night...

The body was clad in Alliance blues and slowly floated off the deck as the _Normandy's_ life support systems failed. _What was his name_ , thought Liara, trying to remember the new faces that had joined the _Normandy_ following their post-Citadel refit.

An explosion rumbled through the frigate's spaceframe, knocking Liara off her feet. Gasping for breath, she fumbled at her suit's controls and activated the mag-soles. As her boots grasped the hallway's plating with a low 'click', a familiar voice broke in on the standard emergency frequency.

"Set Condition Zero, I repeat, Condition Zero, This is **_not_** a drill!" Before Shepard could repeat the standard Alliance code for abandoning ship, another familiar voice interrupted.

"God damn it, Shepard, I can still save her!" A yelp then sounded over the 1MC before it cut off to the standard pre-recorded evacuation warnings. "All hands away to the evacuation points. Evacuation points are on the bridge, midships on deck two, and in the main cargo bay." As the announcement played again, pulsing red evacuation markings activated on the walls and decks, showing the way to the escape pods.

Decades spent at remote dig sites had taught Liara how to behave in situations like this; you had to lock off your emotions and do what needed to be done. Despite that, Liara still offered a silent prayer to the Goddess to look over Jane while she checked the floating body, whose name tape read DUBYANSKY.

Finding no pulse on the neck, she pushed it out of the way and moved down the corridor, following the pulsing markings, which remained lit, even as main power died. A white and red armored figure was ahead of her at the midships evacuation point; alternately fighting a fire with an extinguisher and pointing crew to an evacuation pod whose signal was still green. One part of Liara's mind, the one used to noting the tiniest details on a dig site, saw that all the other pods were signalling red, meaning they'd been jettisoned earlier, or were too badly damaged to launch.

Seeing her, the figure pulled a spare fire extinguisher from the damage control locker she'd been using and tossed it towards Liara.

"Where's the Commander?" Williams shouted. "We're down to the last good pod here!"

"Bridge," Liara stated as she broke the seal on the extinguisher. "She was checking up some drive alignment issues with Joker!"

"Last ride off leaves in ninety seconds," stated Ashley. "Core's starting to go unstable. Adams wasn't able to pull the safeties before they had to evacuate engineering."

"Goddess," Liara said. "That much _eezo_..."

"Which is why we're leaving with or without Shepard in sixty."

At Ashley's words, Liara felt anger creeping up her spine and she had to fight to keep her _eikon_ from flaring, something she'd had over sixty years' of practice in; ever since that first disastrous dig with the Turian professor so long ago.

"Good thing I wasn't planning on doing anything else today," announced a voice from down the hallway. Moments later, Shepard flew into view, executing a smooth somersault and locking her magboots to the port bulkhead of the corridor.

"Everyone's off, but us and that last ride," announced Ashley. "Joker?"

"Bridge pod. He didn't want to leave the ship." Liara caught a brief glimpse of frustration in Jane's eyes from behind her visor. "So I made him leave the ship."

Ashley winced. "He's not going to like that."

"A month in traction beats being dead. Let's get out of here."

###

The flash of motion caught Vasir's eyes and she looked up from her report to see the blurred form of T'Soni writhing on the bed on the scanner's display.

"Subject continues to experience violent nightmares almost nightly," noted Vasir. "Symptoms in line with classic mid-stage _Lymarsa_ syndrome." At that, Tela smirked. It never got old; some fancy high-born maiden who'd been sheltered from the world went out and 'found' their _allelion_ , usually within the first couple of partners. Then, when the _allelion_ died, _lymarsa_ wasn't too far away.

###

The escape pod was cramped, but not as cramped as some of the places that Liara had spent on digs over the last few decades. She strapped herself into one of the seats; thanking the Goddess once again that humans were so Asaroidian.

As Jane stepped into the escape pod; a wave of doubt washed over Liara. Hadn't she seen this happen before?

 _Wait. No! Goddess! No!_

Before Liara could do anything, a massive explosion ripped through the _Normandy_. Inside the pod, the lights died; with only the weak glow of the battle lanterns lighting the interior. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the main systems status panel for the pod flashing solid red.

 _Jane! No! Don't!_

Shepard paused in the hatch, glancing over at the status panel for the pod before looking at her.

"I'll always love you, Liara."

Each time she heard those words, no matter how many times she tried to push herself to say something, it was always too late by the time she reacted. With a muffled _boom_ , the emergency door squibs fired and the hatch slammed shut. With Jane on the other side.

"No!" she shouted, reaching for the harness release lever, only to find a white gloved hand already there, keeping her from unlatching the harness. "Stay there T'Soni," ordered Ashley. "Unless you want to break your neck!"

"I won't leave her!" she cried as her composure broke and her _eikon_ flowed outwards. As biotic power rippled over her body in waves, she locked eyes with her _allelion_ through the small window in the hatch.

Jane was working at something on the other side when a bright blue wave of energy washed over her. Her form dissolved moments before the _eezo_ blast blew through the hatch like it wasn't there.

###

It took Liara a couple of moments to realize where she was and to stop screaming. She was back in her apartment on Ilium.

 _Goddess, it was the Normandy dream again._ A moment passed, as did a stray thought – one that she immediately hated – she'd been glad that it wasn't the husk dream again.

In those; Shepard stood before her, whole again at first glance. But as she moved closer, she saw things not quite right. Then Shepard would speak – always in a flat monotone as glowing wires sprouted from her flesh while she jerked unnaturally.

Over in the corner would be Miranda Lawson, laughing at her as she controlled the _thing_ that had been Shepard.

Waking up from _that_ was much harder than the _Normandy_ dream. With a sigh, she stood up, noticing that it was about an hour before her normal wake-up time.

As she did her morning ablutions, Liara reached out with her biotics, searching for any sign that her _allelion_ was back in the land of the living. About two weeks ago, she'd thought she'd felt _something_ – but now that was gone.

Not for the first time, did Liara T'Soni wonder about what she'd done. At first, it had seemed insane. Bringing back the dead? But Miranda had had detailed files on various revival experiments, ranging from pyjacks to the upper primates of Earth.

"I won't lie to you, Lady T'Soni." Miranda had said. "It won't be easy, and I can't guarantee success."

"But you'll bring her back?" she'd said. "Exactly as she was before?"

"As best as we can." At that, Miranda had paused. "You've seen her body. We may be forced to use synthetics in some areas, particularly in spinal reconstruction."

She'd listened, looked at the reports, and like one of those hopelessly smitten maidens on those thousand-year running holovision epics she'd watched as a child; she'd said yes.

And now, nearly two years later, the doubts were creeping in. At first, Miranda had sent terse, heavily encrypted status updates through cut-outs; but those had stopped seven months ago. The last update had said that they'd gotten Jane's heart beating again on its own.

Nothing since. Why? Could it be that Cerberus had played her all along? Gotten her to turn over her _allelion_ 's body - after all she'd gone through to recover Jane - so that they could turn her into a VI-controlled meat puppet? She'd watched the interviews on the extranet between al-Jilani and whatever Huerta was now, and you could tell the difference between _then_ and _now_ quite easily with old footage of the man.

Had she doomed herself to that? Had she doomed Feron for that?

Not for the last time, Liara T'Soni cried her heart out, surrounded by fragments of her nearly fifty-year scientific career. A career she'd give up in a heartbeat to have Jane back.

 **############**

 ** _Command Ship  
Hagalaz  
Sowilo System_**

Deep inside his inner sanctum, the Shadow Broker worked calmly and methodically at his desk; skimming across reports, authorizing assassinations, clearing bribes and promoting or liquidating agents. A beep from a particular console caused one of his eyes to swivel over to it. That was the terminal used for the most secure subjects. Shutting off the other consoles, he turned to it and brought up the message.

 _To: Office 01-00  
From: Office 04-01, Analysis Division_

 _Subj: Analysis of remains recovered from Cerberus research outpost._

 _Analysis of the tissue samples provided by Operative Tazzik shows that this body, while having the same DNA as Captain Shepard, is indisputably a flash clone. Furthermore, analysis of the cortex shows that neural networks are at a remarkably low stage of growth._

 _With these details in mind, it is Analysis Division's conclusion that Captain Shepard's body remains in the custody of Cerberus at this time._

A low subharmonic grumble arose from the Shadow Broker's multiple throats, finally erupting in a titanic howl of rage. Leaping to his feet; he brought a fist down onto the thick steel table, shattering it in half. As the destroyed terminals on his desk crackled and sputtered; the Broker paced the room, growling as he did so.

 _Harper will pay for this_ , he swore. _When I find him, I'll sever his spine and feed him his own limbs one by one, before he expires._

A glowing orb floated in front of him and beeped questioningly. "Sir, shall I have another desk brought up from storage?"

"Yes. In the meantime, have markers placed with all of our operatives who are in position to track flash regrowth of tissues on living bodies."

With a beep of acknowledgment, the orb floated away. Behind it, the Yahg seethed.

 **Author Notes:**

 **Humanity/Cerbereus**

 **CLONES OF SHEP:** Originally I intended for the tubes to be full of green Asari (being left over Thorian clones from ME1 that Cerberus found). This is the second time the green Asari have been put in the story and then removed. The major reason I removed them is the Shadow Broker is no fool; and if he sees a roomful of green Asari clones; he's going to start thinking 'Asari' when trying to find Shepard. So for Shepard to run "silent", this had to be left on the cutting room floor.

 **HARSHOV/ROIGA SCALE:** Basically, imagine a cross between a Rorschach test and the Blade Runner "turtle" test - you get shown various photos/videos of alien races while an advanced EEG is hooked up to you, to measure your public and instinctive responses. Jack would probably score incredibly low on it when shown humans :D The Roiga scale/test is the Asari version of this.

 **ARGO** : Cerberus codename for the "Normandy" SR-2 project.

 **Trellani T'Gaea:** I first noticed her in the Shadowbroker files, specifically that Jack Harper (TIM) had sex with her twice that week; in addition to the usual starlets that a man of "high taste" would cultivate.

Given that in a meld, it would be extremely difficult to keep secrets from an Asari; _something_ is definitely up with Matriarch Trellani. Also, TIM sent messages to both Ilium and Thessia on the same day; so he's got connections with the Matriarchy somehow. After I made those connections, I started reading _Of Sheep and Battle Chicken_ and saw that LogicalPremise had also noticed the Trellani connection as well.

 **ASARI**

 ** _Allelion_** _:_ Asari term for "your other half". Reserved for the deepest of bonds. If you enter into an _allelion_ -level relationship in your maiden years and it is severed, Lymarsa Syndrome is likely to develop. In real life, ancient Greek term (allḗlōn) meaning "of one another".

 ** _LYMARSA_** **SYNDROME:** In some hints inside the games; we know that Asari melding can be pretty deep – PeeBee says in MEA: **_"Do you know about...Asari melding? Our bodies and minds weave together...become one."_** Other fanfic writers have gone about this to varying degrees. My thought is - what happens when you're swapping parts of each other's mind during melding on a regular basis, and your partner suddenly dies? Or you break up like Benezia and Aethyta? This is also one of the major reasons the Asari prefer surgical commando operations – minimum casualties equals minimum Lymarsa cases. It's also a filter from Matron to Matriarch – at some point, despite the warnings, an Asari will likely deep bond with a partner and that partner will die. A high level of will is needed to survive the partner's death.

 **TEMETRIA:** Asari name for Earth. Basically the Asari are all "whuh?" when it comes to calling Earth Earth, or Terra. Because Thessia is not "land", but rather "Mother Ocean".

 ** _Eikon:_** Asari term for 'baring your anger'; consisting of calling a biotic field into existence around your body. Among the most impressive displays of an _eikon_ is that of a fully trained Asari Justicar.

 ** _Nishi_** : Asari word for 'sense of duty'. Basically "Death is lighter than a feather" kind of stuff.

 **Asari Longevity:** I went with 1,000 years being the "baseline" median for Asari longevity, like 85 is for humans. The oldest certified humans are 120 years old, or 1.4 times longer than the median. Applying that to the Asari gave an upper figure of 1,400 years for the "luckiest" Asari.

 **"The Matriarchy"**

Way I figure it, there are multiple layers of "knowing", broken down as:

 **The Council of Republics** , which every Matriarch belongs to, with various debate committees on every possible subject. (What aliens think the 'Matriarchy' is). They vote on public stuff, like declaring war on the Rachni, building Mass Relays, etc.

 **The Council of Decova** is composed of elder Matriarchs who are trusted and knowledgeable. The Decova know 90% of the dirty secrets of the Asari, such as the Prothean Beacon in the Temple. They also authorize Huntress Commando units that don't exist to kill people in operations that don't exist.

 ** _The Triarchy_** , composed of lone representatives of the Council of Decova, the Justicar Order and the Temple of Athame. Those three know where ALL the bodies are buried, and the intention is that the other two will act as a counter to any 'rogue' representative.

 **SHADOWBROKER**

 **SHADOW BROKER ASSAULT GROUPS:** I think the Shadow Broker is careful about who he hires for his "extreme risk" operations. While he might use every race in the galaxy for his wider "net", for his version of Special Forces, I think he avoids the use of long lived species like Asari or Krogans or new species like Humans to avoid the inevitable coup attempts; which while easily defeated, can become tiresome.

 **TAZZIK:** He was a one-shot "enforcer" for the Shadow Broker who only appeared in the **Mass Effect: Redemption** comic. However, LogicalPremise did such a great job in turning Tazzik into a big-baddie in _Of Sheep and Battle Chicken_ , that I just had to use him.

Tazzik is basically the "public" enforcer for the Broker – when the Broker wants to send a message that it was the Broker who did this. Meanwhile, Vasir is the "silent" enforcer, who handles stuff that requires subtlety and/or stuff that can't be linked back to the Broker.

 **MAIN OFFICE:** I originally wrote the email as being addressed to the Shadow Broker, but I figured he would avoid the use of his title officially; to avoid drawing any attention to himself. Let others talk in hushed tones about the Shadow Broker and his network. There's no need for self-aggrandizement when **_you're_** the Shadow Broker.

 ** _Name Sources So Far:_**

 **Trellani T'Gaea:** Asari-zed version of 'Aeginaea' which was an alternate name for the Greek goddess Artemis.


End file.
